Ms Michele Rohan:

On what Mr. Kearney said about sponsorship bodies and the more than 800 CE schemes, a section of our presentation on sponsors' organisations mentioned the responsibility placed on supervisors. As the former Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív noted, supervisors look after all of the payroll and all of the financial side of a payroll such as tax returns, PRSI and PAYE contributions etc. They must be sent to the Department every month and you cannot have any differentiation between the amount of funding you received for the monthly wage and the amount that has been claimed.

As stated in our presentation, the supervisors must act like the CEO of these limited companies and a CEO's responsibility is the work that must be done by CE supervisors. A CE supervisor works as a HR manager, a financial manager, a training manager and the production manager, who decides the amount of work to be done and which work must be done. A supervisor liaises between the sponsors who seek to have the various works done in various locations. CE is in drug treatment centres and all of the most essential services, including, for example, Enable Ireland, the autism sector and services for people with Alzheimer's disease. CE schemes do not just provide people to cut grass and participate in activities for Tidy Towns committees. It is everywhere. If we are not a little more progressive in our thinking and have joined-up thinking, then these 800-plus schemes will close because those who volunteer their time, namely, the sponsors, are burdened with too much responsibilities and they will walk away.

What will happen then? I do not know. Something needs to be done about governance. The Department and this committee can do something about this matter. Today, we gave the committee a lot of information and we are at the end of a phone if members seek more information. The schemes are stressed to the limit and the supervisors are stressed to their limits. The role of a supervisor is not seen as a career any more because of the amount of work involved. In addition, many supervisors are retiring and the need to replace people in supervisory vacancies and roles is increasing. Our terms and conditions must become more attractive to attract new people, and younger people, to the role. We depend on the committee here to improve the role of supervisors. This is the first proper opportunity that we have had to give members our opinions and experiences on the ground and to have our voice heard as regards CE schemes, for which I thank the committee.